{"id":247826,"date":"2026-04-13T17:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T17:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/247826\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T17:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T17:35:07","slug":"this-el-paso-native-helped-build-nasas-moon-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/247826\/","title":{"rendered":"This El Paso Native Helped Build NASA\u2019s Moon Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s always great when you can say that you were able to witness history as it was happening, and that\u2019s what many people can say if they followed as NASA\u2019s Artemis mission unfolded live on TV. I watched the live landing and it was one of those \u201cwow, this is history\u201d moments you don\u2019t forget.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Seeing it all happen in real time felt great for so many reasons. Artemis II marked the first time humans traveled beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 which was over 50 years ago! On top of that, Artemis III took the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon, making this not just a scientific breakthrough, but a powerful cultural moment too.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It was great to witness history, but for one El Paso man he was able to witness it and be part of this historic mission!<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy: Ivan Palacios\/FitFam El Paso<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy: Ivan Palacios\/FitFam El Paso<\/p>\n<p>Read More: <a href=\"https:\/\/kisselpaso.com\/gabriel-esparza-latin-grammy\/?utm_source=tsmclip&amp;utm_medium=referral\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Music Helped Him Heal, Now He Has a Latin Grammy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>From El Paso\u2026 to the moon, literally.<\/p>\n<p>A post shared to FitFam El Paso\u2019s Instagram page had many El Pasoans cheering as we all found out that El Pasoan Ivan Palacios was part of this historic journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ivan is a Hanks High School graduate and he was hired as a senior spacecraft electrician with ASRC Federal in Florida. However, his journey wasn\u2019t a straight shot to space.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>According to the post, after high school Ivan worked a mix of jobs from construction sites to Wingstop before making a life-changing decision to enlist in the United States Navy. As a missile technician, he earned top-secret clearance and worked aboard Ohio-class submarines, the largest in the Navy\u2019s fleet.<\/p>\n<p>Read More: <a href=\"https:\/\/kisselpaso.com\/utep-law-school\/?utm_source=tsmclip&amp;utm_medium=referral\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Could El Paso Get Its First Law School? It\u2019s One Step Closer!<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After completing his service, Ivan briefly worked with the El Paso County Sheriff\u2019s Office before landing a role that would quite literally take him out of this world. When Ivan became the senior spacecraft electrician with ASRC Federal in Florida, he would also be joining a massive team responsible for building Artemis II.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m here representing El Paso and making a name for myself,\u201d Ivan shared with FitFam. \u201cI have no college education; I\u2019ve just worked hard, stayed dedicated and made good choices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ivan\u2019s story is proof that big dreams don\u2019t require a perfect path, just persistence.<\/p>\n<p>El Paso Engineer Gabriel Esparza Wins First Latin Grammy Win<\/p>\n<p>El Paso audio engineer Gabriel Esparza earns his first Latin Grammy in a powerful, emotional moment tied to family, grief, and healing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"photogallery-credit\">Gallery Credit: Courtesy: Gabriel Esparza<\/p>\n<p>El Paso, TX Musician at The 2022 Grammys <\/p>\n<p class=\"photogallery-credit\">Gallery Credit: Courtesy: Roger Argenis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s always great when you can say that you were able to witness history as it was happening,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139,141,142,6262,143,833],"class_list":["post-247826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news","tag-featured-carousel","tag-include-in-newsletter","tag-list-posts","tag-local-el-paso","tag-local-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}